VARO Energy announces that it is increasing its shareholding in SilviCarbon, an agro-science leader which connects reforestation projects with carbon market participants, from 51 percent to 59.8 percent. This investment provides greater exposure to the fast-growing voluntary credits market and enables SilviCarbon to deploy increased coverage in key forestry assets, deepening its already strong local expertise, leveraging its world-class, science-led team and building on its track record of managing complex carbon projects.
SilviCarbon has announced it has completed the issuance of an inaugural set of 134,000 high-quality Carbon Dioxide Removal Certificates. These certificates confirm carbon removals which are correctly quantified, deliver climate benefits, strive to store carbon for a long time, prevent carbon leaks, and contribute to sustainability.
These CDRs originated from the ‘Burapha Agroforestry’ project in Laos, which is a Forest Stewardship Council™ accredited Laotian-Swedish plantation. The project focuses on lands previously harmed by intensive farming techniques and aims to substitute these practices with sustainable agroforestry methods, creating new employment opportunities and contributing to economic growth locally, as well as supporting biodiversity conservation.
Achieving this first milestone demonstrates both VARO’s and SilviCarbon’s joint commitment to delivering traceable, high-quality CO2-removal solutions to help the hardest-to-abate emitters to decarbonise. These achievements are important steps toward realising VARO’s ambition, articulated through one of its five strategic growth pillars, to offer a fully integrated, cost-effective carbon removal solution for customers, optimised through advisory and trading.
Founded in 2019, SilviCarbon brings together decades of science-led expertise and experience in forestry. SilviCarbon currently has registered 110,000 hectares of land with Verra, the independent certification body that has developed specific standards for quantifying, monitoring, and verifying carbon offsets. Together with its customers and project owners, another 500,000 hectares have been validated and are undergoing registration approval.
SilviCarbon is involved in eight projects in Laos and Paraguay which will provide the company with rights of approximately 10 million tonnes of CO2e removals over their lifetime (which is equivalent to the yearly consumption of around 5.5 million cars that drive 15,000km per year, as per the European average).
Dev Sanyal, CEO of VARO Energy commented:
“This is an important milestone for VARO. Silvicarbon, a leading agro-science company with eight material and verified projects, provides an important platform for our growing Carbon Removal business. Silvicarbon’s track record in forestry combined with VARO’s marketing and trading expertise will accelerate the provision of fully integrated decarbonisation solutions for our customers. This increase of our stake and the issuance of our first CDR’s represents a major milestone and another significant step towards becoming the energy transition partner of choice.”
Michael Knap, Director of SilviCarbon, added:
“We are proud to have achieved this important milestone in collaboration with VARO. My team and I have initiated and managed hundreds of carbon projects, explored over a hundred forestry locations and have been involved in and responsible for dozens of forestry projects.
We are looking forward to combine our extensive experience in plantations, forestry products and carbon markets to develop carbon financing solutions for large-scale forestry projects, and provide carbon removals to companies seeking to meet their net zero climate targets.”
For more information visit www.varoenergy.com
